Working Girl

Babygirl opens with Nicole Kidman and husband Antonio Banderas having the kind of passionate, intimate sex you see in Hollywood movies. When they are done, Kidman quickly scampers off to another room to enjoy some pornography. Hollywood sex you see, often doesn't cut it in the real world. And that's really the crux of writer/director Halina Reijn's latest film, even ideal isn't good enough if you aren't being honest with yourself.

Kidman plays Romy Mathis, a tech company CEO with a charming and handsome theatre director husband (Banderas), a seemingly good relationship with her two children and at least two palatial homes. She has accomplished the "have it all" life women are told to aspire to and works hard to keep it, striving to be the best at her job, undertaking a painstaking (and painful looking) beauty routine including such delights as numbing free botox and ice baths and attempts to be the ideal loving and supportive wife. The problem is, she isn't satisfied in the bedroom, longing for something a bit more out there than her gentleman husband is comfortable with (for a creative type he is a bit of a square). Enter tall drink of water Harris Dickinson as young intern Samuel. He first catches her attention in the street when he calmly brings an out of control dog to heel and when they later meet at work it turns out he has an intuition for seeing what people need and quickly spots Romy is desperate for somebody to call the shots over her. She makes half hearted attempts to quell his directness but the pair soon end up in a master/slave style sexual relationship with the fact she is risking both career and family only fuelling Romy's desire. The central affair may have been billed as steamy, erotic thriller fodder, and at times it is, but it also has painfully awkward moments as the pair navigate their situation and find their roles. One scene involving milk will bring back nightmares to UK viewers who remember an infamous episode of Celebrity Big Brother.

The best thing about Babygirl is that it isn't a film that sets out to judge or punish its lead character for having sexual desire. There is a worrying mention early on of Romy having been raised in some sort of cult but the film settles on her desire to get freaky being part of her natural character rather than a character flaw. The moral dilemma is in her actions, not her wants. Embarking on an affair behind your partners back is one thing and the power dynamic between Kidman and Dickinson is interesting (and certainly not something that would have worked were the genders reversed). She is his superior snd supposed mentor but in many ways the power rests with him as he can, as he says, "end her with a phone call". More grey area is added by Dickinson's enigmatic portrayal of Samuel, there is no doubt he is one hundred percent complicate in the relationship, the instigator in fact, but it is mostly unclear how much his child like outbursts are part of a controlling game and how much he is just not emotionally equipped for the situation.

It feels a bit redundant to say Nicole Kidman is good but she really locks down a challenging role. For a film of this type it's low on nudity but high on emotional vulnerability and she deftly avoids the trap of making Romy a Jekyll and Hyde character with two separate personalities. There is enough fragility in her polished CEO mode that we can see she needs something more and enough steel to let us know that she put herself in her predicament willingly. Both Dickinson and Banderas are also great and there is a low key fantastic performance from Sophie Wilde as Kidman's subtly frustrated assistant, tired of not get her due and her boss's lack of action on improving things for women in the workplace.

The films weaknesses are mostly related to the story telling. It was obviously never going to be a plot heavy film; you know two people are going to meet, embark on an affair and eventually there will be some sort of reckoning. There's no problem with that but a couple of things don't quite ring true. For instance, Romy is taken aback by the way Samuel begins challenging her at work when surely slapping down cocky young men at work is part and parcel of daily working life for women in positions of power. The timeline is also a little confusing, with birthday parties, fallings out and montages it feels like a fair bit of time passes yet the decorated trees suggest the entire film takes place in the run up to Christmas.

Ultimately, your milage with Babygirl with depend on your ability to get on board with the main character's inner struggle. On the one hand, it's a film about a one percenter who takes advantage of her position of power to cheat on a loving husband rather than just tell him to get a little nasty between the sheets. On the other, its the story of a women who has done everything right but is still not whole because society has told her that being herself is in someway shameful and the damage that can do to a persons life. Or you can just pretend you are watching an after hours Hallmark movie.

7 pocket cookies out of 10.

Comments

You Must Walk 500 Miles

As far as descriptive titles go, The Long Walk nails it. In an undefined near future, a bunch of teenage boys compete to see who can walk the farthest, with riches and a wish of their choice the reward for the last one standing. The catch? There is only one winner and if you stop, or drop below the allotted 3-mile-an-hour pace, you get shot. As if that wasn't bad enough, they have to march under the watchful eye of Mark Hamill's "Major", a military hard ass who, in the time-honoured tradition of old men sending young men to their deaths, constantly barks platitudes about how brave and noble the competitors are while clearly not giving a toss about them. Given the nature of the film, it's something of an ensemble piece, with a glut of young actors you'll recognise, but the main focus is on Ray (Cooper Hoffman) and Pete (David Jonsson). While a level of camaraderie emerges between many of the boys, it is the friendship between these two that forms the core of ...

Man About Town

Caught Stealing is not your typical Darren Aronofsky film. More playful and less mired misery, it feels like the director having a stab at a Guy Ritchie-esque caper around late 90's Manhattan. For the most part, it works. Austin Butler is Henry "Hank" Thompson, a New York bartender and former baseball prodigy. When he and girlfriend Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz) are asked to keep an eye on Hank's neighbours cat, they end up in the crosshairs of Russian gangsters, Yiddish hitmen and "concerned" cops. This may be more playful in tone than his usual fare, but this is still an Aronofsky film, so Hank is a man with an obsession, in this case baseball. His devotion to his beloved San Francisco Giants dictates his mood and is the foundation of his relationship with his equally obsessed mother, whom he calls every day to discuss their prospects with. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm is intrinsically linked to his own cut-short ball career and the ghost of what could have been...

Don't be a Stranger

The Strangers: Chapter 2 skulks into cinemas a little over a year after the underwhelming Chapter 1. While this is, probably, a little better than last year's instalment it still doesn't feel like a worthwhile use of anyone's time. It very much is a "chapter 2" situation rather than a sequel. Events pick up directly after the finale of the last film and end on a cliffhanger, with the already filmed third set to finish the story. Quite why this approach was taken is a mystery, as there isn't anything deeper or more expansive going on than what could easily fit inside a ninety minute slasher movie. We open with the local diner learning that one half of the stalked couple, Maya (Madelaine Petsch), survived being stabbed. We then cut to her in a hospital with no other patients and about two members of staff, both of whom soon disappear so that Maya can be stalked by the masked "strangers". That is pretty much the movie. Maya is chased, escapes, there i...

The Family That Fights Ghosts Together..

The Conjuring: Last Rites is the fourth instalment in the blockbuster horror franchise and picks up five years after the previous entry, with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) now retired from the paranormal investigation game. When a spooky mirror from their past remerges, they, along with now adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson), find they may have no choice but to get their ghost busting on one last time. So, the main problem with The Conjuring movies, has always been the "based on a true story" aspect of their presentation. Sure, Ed and Lorraine were indeed really people and they did in fact investigate claims of paranormal activity. Unlike their film counterparts however, they are well known to have been a couple of frauds. To begin with, this wasn't much of an issue, as horror films loosely (read: not really at all) based on true stories are common, but as the franchise progresses, and the Warrens are painted as more and more heroic, it becom...

Fight For Your Right

The debate about the "Great American Novel" (a book that encapsulates the spirit and character of the United States) continues to rage. While One Battle After Another is loosely inspired by a book (Thomas Pynchon's Vineland), it feels like Paul Thomas Anderson's second stab, after "There Will Be Blood", at crafting the Great American Movie. This is a very different beast to his 2007 masterpiece, both in setting and tone, but is just as epic and wide reaching in its own way. Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) is the leader of militant revolutionary group "The French 75" and her partner Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the team explosive expert. The movie opens with the self-styled freedom fighters breaking a bunch of detained immigrants out of a holding camp. This brings them into the crosshairs of Colonel Stephen J. Lockjaw who begins pursuing the group. After being arrested, Perfidia disappears, leaving Pat to raise their baby daughter in hi...

Weightwatchers Extreme

The Cut is a boxing movie with (apart from a brief opening sequence) no boxing in it. Instead it focuses on the equally brutal, but less visibly part of the sport, weight loss, as a former contender spirals into madness while trying to shed an insane amount of heft in order to secure a last minute return to the big time. Orlando Bloom is a boxer (he is never named during the film) who lost his one title shot and now runs a gym with his partner and trainer Caitlin (Catriona Balfe). He retains a reputation for being an exciting knockout specialist so when a title contender dies weeks before an upcoming Las Vegas showdown, scary promoter Donny (Gary Beadle) offers him the chance of a glamorous comeback. The catch? He needs to shed thirty two pounds (over two stone or fourteen kilos) in a week. Caitlin agrees to him giving it a go provided they do things by the book, but when traditional methods fail, John Turturro's Boz enters the equation and pushes Bloom way beyond the bounds of w...

Honey Doesn't

Honey Don't is the second film from the director/writer team-up of Ethan (one half of the brothers) Coen and his wife Tricia Cook. Like their previous effort, "Drive Away Dolls", it is wonderfully queer but lacks any of the sharpness and precise pacing that typifies a classic Coen brothers movie. Margaret Qualley is Honey O'Donahue (a name you will hear spoken a LOT over the course of the film), a private investigator in Bakersfield. She is essentially a classic noir gumshoe detective transported to sun-bleached, modern-day California. After a would-be-client dies, Honey begins an investigation that has her cross paths with Chris Evans's skeezy preacher and the mysterious French woman who represents his business partners. She is also attempting to provide support to her sister, who has a small army of children, including an eldest daughter who she is constantly at loggerheads with. All while working her way through the lesbian population of town, including embarki...

The Devil is in the Pigtails

Whatever your opinion of David Gordon Green's Halloween trilogy its hard to deny he took a big swing at it and The Exorcist: Believer has a lot in common with the director's 2018 revitalisation of that franchise. Like Halloween 2018 this film ignores every previous sequel and is a direct follow up to the original Exorcist. Like Halloween 2018 this film sticks pretty closely to beats of the original but with heightened stakes (more kills for Halloween, twice the number of possessed kids here). Unlike Halloween 2018 this film isn't a complete success. Not that The Exorcist: Believer is a write off by any means. Having two friends be possessed is a nice way of distinguishing proceedings from the sea of other possession films we have seen over the last few years and adds an extra layer to dealing with the situation, not only does the worried father need to deal with what is happening to his daughter but also with another family and their beliefs on what should be done. The pos...

Econ Air

Single location thriller Flight Risk is the latest film to suffer from an "over eager" trailer. That is to say, the trailer covers pretty much everything that happens in the movie, more or less in the exact order it occurs. On the plus side, it isn't a film that was ever going to keep any secrets so it doesn't suffer as much as some others have. FBI agent Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) takes a flight with informant Winston (Topher Grace) but a short way into their journey they discover the pilot, played by Mark Wahlberg, is actually a mob hitman there to end them both before Winston can squeal. There is a brief opening at an Alaskan cabin and the finale is on a runway, but for the most part it's just the three of them in the cabin of a small plain. Events unfold almost like a theatrical play as the three talk and argue with intermittent attempts at murder. The main thing to know about Flight Risk is that it is ridiculous. The decisions the characters make a...

We are Living in a Material World

Materialists is, on the surface, a romantic drama-comedy about a New York matchmaker who faces a choice in her own love life. It has something more on its mind though, presenting a forensic examination of modern adult relationships and the incompatibility of expectation and genuine feeling. Dakota Johnson is Lucy, a specialist in matching together "elite" couples. For elite, read some of the worst people on Earth. Men who demand their partners have knockout bodies, adhere to strict weight limits and the younger the better. Women who will only consider the tall, rich and in one case, white. In Lucy's world marriage is a business deal and the ultimate match is the one who checks the most boxes. As a "voluntary celibate", she carries this philosophy into here every day life and has no interest in dating until she can find the rich man who will make husband material. The love cynic is a classic trope for the lead in a movie with this set up but there is much more...

Dan Says its Alright

Search This Blog